Hybrid beasts, or the “lunch buckets”
Before the dawn of the first true laptop, some ugly mutations wandered in,
along with a few rejects from various mad scientists around the globe. I call
them the lunch bucket computers because they assumed the shape, size and
weight of a typical hard hat’s lunch box. The Compaq III, shown in Figure 1-4,
was typical of this type of portable computer.
Figure 1-4: The Compaq III.
- The lunch box beasts weighed anywhere from 12 to 20 or more pounds,
and most were not battery powered.
- At this same time, color monitors were becoming the standard for desktop
computers. For technological reasons, monochrome LCD screens
were all that laptops could offer.
- Honestly, the lunch buckets did offer something over the old transportable
or luggables: less weight! A late-model lunch bucket PC weighed
in at about 12 pounds, or half the weight and about 1/8 the size of the suitcase-
sized luggables.
Early PC laptops
The computer industry’s dream was to have a portable computer that had all
the power of a desktop computer, plus all the features, yet be about the same
size and weight as the Model 100. One of the first computers to approach that
mark was the Compaq SLT back in 1988, shown in Figure 1-5.
The Compaq SLT was the first portable computer that actually looks like one
of today’s laptops. It featured a full-sized keyboard, full-sized screen, floppy
drive (this is before the era of CD-ROM), and a 286 microprocessor, which
meant that the computer could run the DOS operating system of the day.
Figure 1-5: The Compaq SLT.
Weight? Alas, the SLT was a bowling ball at 14 pounds!
What the Compaq SLT did was prove to the world that portability was possible.
A laptop computer was designed to feature everything a desktop computer
could, plus run off batteries for an hour or so.
Calculating laptop weight: The missing piece(s)
When computer companies specify the weight
of their laptops, I’m certain that they do it under
ideal conditions, possibly at the North Pole or
some other location where the earth’s gravity
field is at its weakest. The weight advertised is,
like they say, “for comparison purposes only.”
Commonly left out of the laptop’s weight is
what’s known as the power brick. This is the AC
adapter used to connect the laptop to a wall
socket. When the laptop isn’t running off of batteries,
you need the power brick to supply the
thing with juice. This means that the power
brick is a required accessory — something you
have to tote with you if you plan on taking the
laptop on an extended trip.
In the old days, what they didn’t tell you in the
advertisements was that the power brick often
weighed half as much as the laptop itself! Either
that, or the power brick was more bulky than the
laptop, as seen nearby with the Dell 320LT’s
obnoxiously big power brick (and heavy 30-
minute batteries). Lugging around such items is
not very convenient. Things are better today.
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